"So how comes Masque listens to you"
"Negotiations are a part of tactics… and I didn't break his arm"
"Ok I'll give you that"
The two walked into the room. The door slammed shut behind them the sound of a heavy lock could be heard clacking shut. Trinity picked up one of her books on field strategy. Syrus lay into his punch bag. Punch after punch swing after swing the bag came back. RRIP! The bag tore, there was a hole in the side of the bag. "Pencil" Syrus said
"We going for a run? After Monday?"
"Better plan" Syrus replied
He plunged his hand in the side of the punch bag and pulled out a spring. "I have a plan"
"You? Plan ahead?" Trinity laughed
"Just you wait. Anyway I'm going to need a conductive distraction to bypass the electric layer in the wall got it?" Trinity nodded and threw him a pencil from her desk. She carried on reading through her books. No matter how hard she tried to focus the occasional sound of metal bending wood cracking and lead scratching disrupted her from her book.
"Be quick we only have 2 hours until ops" Trinity said over her book. Syrus nodded.
"Done!" Syrus said patting himself on the back. Trinity looked up to see a sharp metal spike curled at the back. The tip of the spike was covered in pencil lead. "Trinity you ready?" she put down her book and put a thumb up. Syrus threw his shirt to the floor braced himself and thrust the spike into the wall sending chips of concrete flying across the room. He began to convulse. Parts of his body blinking left and right. Trinity ran and tackled him off of the wall. The two of them fell to the floor. "There has to be a safer way to deal with this wall" Trinity laughed. Sparks arched between the coils on the improvised device. "You fit to blink?" Trinity asked
"I'll be fine" Syrus said. He got up and brushed himself off.
"So what is this plan? What are you doing?"
"Oh. Many things are happening. Do I understand any of them? No. Will I likely regret them? Yes. Is that enough to make me stop? Hell no!" The sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway. "My time to shine!" Syrus took a run at the wall and blinked outside of the room. Trinity ran to listen at the door. There was a loud thud. Syrus had blinked and smacked into a wall.
"Aah!" the same voice that came from the door on Monday let out a scared cry. There was the sound of a crackle.
"Whoa, whoa calm down. I just came to chat. Put the semblance inhibitor down"
"Masquerade operative 2. W-what are you doing out of your cell"
"I felt the need for a stroll."
"I-I. I have your food rations. M-Masquerade"
"Please call me Syrus"
"I-I don't think I'm allowed to"
"I won't tell" Trinity could feel his smirk through the wall.
"O-ok. Syrus I-I have your rations"
"Oh thanks! God let me tell you I am starving. But less about me, how was your day."
"M-my day? You're the first person to ask me that." She sighed "a day in the life of an atlesian intern I guess"
"Oh how comes?"
"If you aren't a general, a huntress or related to the Schnees then you're nobody in Atlas"
"Hey everyone is someone no matter where you are. And you? You're going up in the world. You're in the academy right?"
"H-How did you know?"
"Uniform"
"Oh Yea, Right"
"Whelp I should probably get back inside before a guard comes out and savagely beats me. Mabey I could break out of my cell some other time and we could talk for longer"
"Wait!"
"Huh?"
"W-w-well Masque says you're some kind of violent degenerate. But you seem nice so here"
"85!"
"Don't sweat it. Pay your sister my respects"
Syrus blinked back into the room carrying two packs of rations and two sachets of water. Trinity was fighting back laughter her face red. "You're about as smooth as sand!" she laughed "you really are your trainer's student. Sam has terrible taste"
"Wait you know about the technique as well?"
Trinity was on the floor laughing "do they teach you anything other than punching?"
"Does kicking count?"
"Nope"
"Grapples?"
"Oh you poor soul."
"Well it worked didn't it? I got food supplement 85"
"That and…"
"What?"
"Theta had the hots for you since she arrived!"
"How do you know?"
"Tactics training isn't long. I go out I socialise"
"Great so I know even less about the world now. Wait! You don't have eight hour lessons!"
"Come on cheer up you got 85 didn't you" Trinity put her hand on his shoulder. Syrus smiled.
"Heh… I guess you're right"
The two of them ate their rations.
"Quick question"
"Shoot"
"Do you know her semblance?"
"No why?"
"I think she tried to use it on me"
"In what sense"
"Her cheeks turned red. But nothing seemed to happen. Either I'm immune or I haven't noticed the effects."
"Not everything is for combat Syrus! She was blushing.
"Blushing?"
"See it as a way to know if your 'technique' is working"
"I think I get it"
There was a knock on the door.
"Run?" trinity asked
"Run" Syrus replied. The latch to the door unlocked and the two of them where gone. A man in body armour walked into the room. He turned to see the device in the wall. He panicked and fumbled for his pocket. A fist came hurtling into the back of the man's head. He fell to the ground. Another hand grasped the baton out of the holster on his belt as he fell. A shock came to the man's back. A walkie-talkie like device slid out of his pocket. Syrus' foot came down crushing the device under his foot. The two of them sprinted off down the hallway blinking to get closer and closer to the door.
They reached the door. Trinity, stun baton in hand, turned to Syrus. "Remember follow my lead. Left, right, right, vent, armoury, right, home free"
"Wait!"
"What?
"A bloodline masquerade is nothing without masks!" he blinked down the hallway and walked back into their room. He came back out holding two purple hoods. Trinity smiled and took a hood from him. They put the hoods on. Out of the cloth descended a mask. Syrus' reminiscent of a theatre comedy mask and Trinity's reminiscent of a tragedy mask. "Morph check" Syrus said. Their masks bean to shift and change becoming a range of shapes and facial expressions before shifting back into their original shape. "Ready?" Syrus nodded. Trinity thrust at the lock with the baton, frying the electronics. The door swung open.
Trinity ran into the room and dived to the ground. "Hey!" A guard shouted. Another turned around. Syrus blinked passed trinity and punched the guard in the face shattering his visor knocking the man out. Trinity thrust her baton into the knee of the other guard sending him toppling over. Trinity threw herself up and the two of them sprinted for a door to the left. "Syrus room after this there will be a girl sitting on the bench directly right of you. Wink at her."
"What! Why!"
"Have I ever lead us wrong?"
"Ok" Syrus shoulder barged the door sending it flying open. A large man in a heavy suit of battle armour stood across the room. The luging mass of the soldier stood almost twice the siblings size. "Double stun!" Trinity shouted. Syrus nodded sprinting at the man. He dived down and slid allowing a stun baton to go sailing over his head through the air. The weapon hit the man shocking him Syrus blinked up to him retaining his momentum and tackled him through the door sending fragments of the door flying across the canteen Syrus and the man had just entered. Trinity ran to catch up. Trinity watched as Syrus stood up dusted off his soldiers and realised who was next to him and what Trinity had asked him to do. His mask ascended into his hood and he shot a quick wink at Theta before dropping his mask and sprinting off with Trinity. Her face flushed a bright shade of pink. The girl sat across from Theta's eyes widened questioningly staring at her.
"Why did I need to do that?" Syrus asked. Trinity sighed
"Technique"
"Ah"
"God you need to get out more"
They hit a dead end. "Leg up!" Trinity commanded. Syrus got down on one knee and held out his hands. Trinity put her foot on his hand and he threw her upwards towards an air vent in the roof. She caught the handle and pulled the hatch open. She hung from the roof. Syrus dived past her crawling into the vent. Trinity began to swing back and forth. She let go of the handle. She felt a pair of hands around her ankles. Syrus had caught her. He pulled her up. The two of them crawled through the vents. Before finding another hatch.
Trinity watched Syrus kick the hatch open and he jump down "clear" he yelled up. Trinity jumped down. Syrus caught her in his arms. "I can land by myself" she said
"What? Just like last week?"
"Shut up! Come on time to arm up"
Trinity walked through the armoury. Looking though all of the choices. Rifles, pistols, batons, swords. "Aha!" she exclaimed at the end of the room propped up against the wall was a reinforced military grade staff. She snagged her weapon to and walked over to Syrus. He was grasping two tonfas. His hand was bleeding. "Syrus please stop punching visors" she said.
He nodded "the fun was about to start anyway. He ripped his shirt off and ripped off a shred of fabric. He rapped the fabric around his hand.
"What do you have against shirts?" Trinity asked. Syrus looked at her confused. "Never mind you're you. That's all the explanation I need"
The two of them where geared up and ready. "Breach on three?" Syrus asked. Trinity nodded. She began to count down. Syrus kicked the door open. The two of them ran into the room to find five soldiers. Three on one knee holding up rifles the other two holding swords standing behind the firing squad. "Stun rounds?" Syrus asked. one of the men slowly shook his head. The smile on Syrus' mask shifted to a grimace. The three men opened fire. Trinity blinked out of the way but Syrus blinked too late a bullet catching him in the side. He reappeared slumped on the floor next to trinity giving out a cry.
"Oh my god! Are you ok!" Trinity worried
"I'm fine. Just goes to show always keep your aura raised" he pushed himself to his feet punching himself in the bullet hole to try to stop the bleeding. "Clones?"
"Yep" their two masks began to morph into wide grins. They blinked away. They were nowhere to be seen. One of the shooters fell to the floor and scrambled to his feet. No one was there. One of the swordsmen took a blow to the chest. Another was hit in the leg. One of the masked figures appeared swung their staff and disappeared before it made contact. Another appeared then disappeared. Suddenly they began to appear and disappear at random sending the soldiers into hysteria. Swinging and firing randomly To the left, no the right, one's on the roof, gone, behind them, gone, in front, behind, left, right, behind A swordsman toppled. A gunner knocked out. The men stuck in a tornado of assailants. "How many of them are there!" one of the soldiers cried out
"It is just the twins. They are trying to psych you… oof" the man was knocked out. A tonfa hit a light in the roof. A staff the next. One by one the light went out. Another man knocked out. One by one the men came down. The figure with the tonfas leaped at the swordsman rolling and grabbing a sword from a downed swordsman as they did. No matter how many swings and blows the atlesian threw at them, their eyes never left the movements of this soldier. The opportunity came where they found a weakness in the pattern of the soldier's fighting style, the figure swung their sword at the centre of his sternum as the soldier attempted to swing. The blade cleaved a large gash in the man's chest. She kicked him over before wiping their blood off of her blade and walked away.
A stun baton flickered in the darkness and swung for the figure with the staff. "Syrus" the figure with the sword said. The other figure flew across the room. The other blinked after them. The mask ascended
"I think I do a pretty good impression of you." Syrus spluttered supported by Trinity's weapon "How come you get to kill people now and I dont?" Syrus said pushing himself off of the ground.
"He'll live. But you're Hurt. You can't calibrate. You're losing blood"
"No. Don't worry about me. Are you okay?" he pushed himself up his arms almost buckling. He began to limp towards the door after Trinity "to be human is to be weak" he uttered. He blinked to keep up. He was further back. He tried again. He blinked only to find himself smacking into a wall. He picked himself up. He hit the floor. "You are not ok!" Trinity shouted. The man with the baton slowly closing in on them
"I'm fine Trinity. Let me go!" Trinity was lifting him up supporting him on her shoulder.
"You can hardly walk let alone blink!" it was apparent that Trinity was not going to listen to him. She pulled Syrus through the door. She fell to her knees, dropping Syrus, her hands over her mouth. Syrus pulled himself up and saw a firing squad four times as big as the one in the last room.
Syrus struggled to his feet and limped into the middle of the room, brandishing his weapons. "Now here is what is going to happen" Trinity grimaced. This only meant one thing. "I am going to take on each and every one of you fucks. I'll probably kill around five of you. So hedging your bets you have a one in four chance of dying. Then you lot are going to riddle me so severely Swiss cheese would be jealous. I'll have a funeral in which Masque will dance on my grave and Trinity will be taken back and trained to become the world's greatest tactician" Syrus got into a fighting stance blood trailed out of his wounds. A tear brimmed in his eye "Trinity stand back."
"I can fight! Let me help you!"Trinity sobbed. This would only go one way. "So any questions?" a dart hit him in the neck
"On second thought I'm feeling tired" he collapsed.
Author's note: Well as you can see Syrus' technique is clearly on par. Thanks for reading! As per usual leave a Review if you want. if you have any questions shoot me a PM and i will reply a long as it doesn't reveal too much about the plot. See you Thursday!